While the Los Angeles Unified School District has been touting a steadily increasing high school graduation rate, a new study from UCLA shows that just a fraction of those graduates who continue on to higher education actually earn a college degree.

The study by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Claremont Graduate University is billed as the first ever to track college success of LAUSD graduates. It looked at data from LAUSD graduates of 2008, 2013 and 2014 and found that while the majority enrolled in college, the number who earned a degree plummeted.

Of LAUSD students who graduated from high school in 2008, 68 percent enrolled in a two- or four-year college. And of those graduates, only 25 percent ended up with a college degree six years later.

Why are so few graduating from college? There are several reasons, according to researchers and the district itself.

Better grades

LAUSD graduates with at least a B average were five times more likely to complete a four-year degree than graduates with lower grades, according to the study.

But of the 2014 LAUSD graduates, fewer than one third had A or B grade averages in high school.

“We know that students that finish high school with stronger grades are much more likely to complete college,” said Meredith Phillips, a researcher and professor at the Luskin School and one of the study’s authors. “Of the things we looked at, it is the most important predictor” for graduating from college.

Tougher standards

The study zeroes in on the core “A-G” courses all LAUSD students must pass to graduate. Four-year California public colleges require a C grade or better in these classes for admission. But LAUSD requires only a D grade to pass these classes.

That difference between a C and a D might not seem like much, but it means students with only a D are five times less likely to enroll in college, according to the study.

The district should stress to ninth-grade students and their families that students have to earn at least C grades for a shot at admission to public universities in California, researchers said.

Francis Gipson, LAUSD’s chief academic officer, said a grade of C or better is the goal.

“We may have some students that did get a D, but we find that they go to a two-year (college) and then enroll in (a) four-year (college) later.”

More counselors

UCLA researcher Phillips said a high workload for guidance counselors in LAUSD is an issue.

“Undoubtedly, more counselors per student would be helpful,” she said. “It’s hard, given resource constraints.”

Gipson said the district is responding already to the study results, such as with a $17 million state grant aimed at getting more students enrolled and graduating from college. One focus is on counselors, she said, and getting them to link more students with information about colleges and financial aid.

“We saw college counselors are far and few between,” Gipson said. And high school counselors “don’t always get trained on how to navigate the college pathways for students.”

The district is building a network of counselors who can share information and not rely only on their individual connections to specific colleges, she said.

Language barriers

The study also looked at students who, by the time they graduated high school, still had limited proficiency in English. That was just 10 percent of the classes of 2008, 2013 and 2014. But the numbers of these students who enroll and finish college are far below the rates for English speakers.

For the high school graduates of 2013, only a third enrolled in college, and most enrolled in two-year schools. For the class of 2008, 31 percent enrolled, and only 8 percent had a college degree six years later.

Kelly Gonez, recently elected to the LAUSD board, has stressed college preparation for Los Angeles students. She said the district has made strides since 2008, the first year to be studied. In her first resolution on the board, Gonez earlier this month proposed that LAUSD start tracking college enrollment and completion.

“We also need to make sure our students and families have access to more information about the college application and admissions process, as well as their options for paying for college,” Gonez said. “Some may see the cost of tuition as making college unattainable, especially four year colleges, when financial aid and scholarships could make such options feasible.”

Other findings from the study:

• The most popular college for LAUSD students who enrolled within a year of graduating high school was CSUN, for the high school classes of 2013 and 2014. CSUN was followed by Santa Monica College, Pierce College and El Camino Community College, all two-year schools. Cal State Los Angeles, a four-year college, came in fifth.

• Half the high school graduates in the study took the SAT or ACT test, required by many four-year California colleges. But of those who did take the test, only one-fourth scored above the national average. About half scored below the 25th percentile.

• Among ethnic groups, Asian American LAUSD graduates were most likely to enroll in college, followed by white students. Black and Filipino American students followed, with slightly higher enrollment rates than Latino students.

The California Charter School Association, sometimes viewed as being at cross-purposes with traditional public schools, said the study shows the need for more high-quality public education options that set students on a college path.

“Parents often choose charter public schools because of their college-bound cultures,” the association said in a statement. “In Los Angeles, the percentage of high school graduates who complete all A-G college preparatory coursework is four times as high at charter public schools as at traditional district schools. As a result, charters are closing the college acceptance rate gap for underrepresented students” such as low-income students at charter schools. However, the association said, it has not tracked academic performance of its graduates beyond high school.

Antonie Boessenkool covers education and the Los Angeles Unified School District. She previously worked in Washington, D.C., covering finance and the defense industry, and in Bakersfield, covering city government. In Orange County, she wrote about arts, features and home decor.

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